Melvin Frank, half of a prolific team that wrote, produced and directed some of Hollywood's wittiest romantic comedies, including ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,'' died of complications from open-heart surgery on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 75 years old.

Mr. Frank, who had more than 35 movies to his credit, was born in Chicago and was graduated from the University of Chicago. There he met Norman Panama, who was to become his writing and producing collaborator for close to a quarter of a century.

The two moved to Hollywood in 1938, where they became writers for the Bob Hope radio show, leading to their first screenwriting venture with Mr. Hope, ''My Favorite Blonde,'' in 1942.

Subsequently they wrote ''The Return of October,'' ''The Reformer and the Redhead'' and their first ''road'' picture for Mr. Hope and Bing Crosby, ''Road to Utopia.''

In 1947, Mr. Frank and Mr. Panama wrote and produced ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,'' which starred Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas. Bosley Crowther praised the film in The New York Times, writing that it offered ''as much casual fun as can be looked for on our sparsely provided screen

The team of Frank and Panama were accustomed to alternating as producers and directors of their films, which in the 1950's included ''Strictly Dishonorable,'' ''Above and Beyond,'' ''Callaway Went Thataway,'' ''The Facts of Life'' and two Danny Kaye comedies, ''Knock on Wood'' and ''The Court Jester.''

In 1956 the team also wrote and produced a Broadway musical, ''Li'l Abner,'' based on the Al Capp comic strip; they also made it into a movie, in 1959.

The two men ended their partnership amicably after writing and producing ''The Road to Hong Kong,'' their final road picture for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, in 1960.

Mr. Frank subsequently produced and was a co-writer of the film version of ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1966) and in 1973 was director, producer and co-writer of ''A Touch of Class,'' for which Glenda Jackson won the Academy Award as best actress. His last picture, released in 1979, was ''Lost and Found,'' with George Segal and Glenda Jackson.

Mr. Frank is survived by his second wife, Juliet; a daughter, Elizabeth; two sons, Andrew and James, and three grandchildren.

On my trip to California in 2012 I went to a Jam session at the Twin Palms in Palm Springs where I met Jimmy Frank. I have no real photograph of Jimmy as he is playing the piano to the right of the camera. We jammed together and I enjoyed the set and we agreed that I should phone Jimmy when I got back to Spain regarding his music with Ronnie Lane and others including Gerry Rafferty and Tom Robinson.

However, there is far more to the story as Jimmy has a really famous father and he is now writing film scores. Listen to the podcast especially near the end when Jimmy tells me about his dad. I have added a newspaper article below to help understand who Jimmy is.